Boxer 'Hurricane' Carter dies of cancer at age of 76

WASHINGTON--Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the prizefighter whose racially tinged wrongful murder conviction made him a symbol of injustice and a pop culture cause, died on Sunday at the age of 76.

Carter, convicted twice and imprisoned for 19 years before he was exonerated in 1985, died on Sunday at home in Toronto, the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted confirmed.

From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as the executive director of the Canadian organization, which said it was “deeply saddened” by the death of “a truly courageous man who fought tirelessly to free others who had suffered the same fate.”